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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Ghosts of the Multiverse by Harald Hansen

Poor Jeremy Fade. He lives in Goom,
suburb of San Francisco, with his second wife and three kids. He
worries. About his wife, about his ex-wife, about his kids, about his
job. An engineer-turned-salesperson, his career and peace of mind
depend upon the closing of his first sale, that of a huge software
package to an unnamed university. But first he has to negotiate all
the postmodern everything-is-a-social-construct politics and then
kiss up to the Bursar, who decides everything. And he keeps seeing a ghost.

The beginning of the book deals with the various characters and their feelings of deserving things: Fade, his sale; the Bursar, deferential behavior; Fade's drug-counselor-wife's patients, her time. All are pursuing their
agendas with varying degrees of success.

The University faculty is distracted from their usual concerns by the impending visit of a delegation, headed by an Imam Walid, from the Islamic Institute of Wyrigistan. Pakistan has been defeated by India. Its remnant joins with
Baluchistan, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to
form Wyrigistan, “balanced in power between the Pashtuns and the
northern tribes.” It also is capable of relatively large-scale
nuclear war. The delegation's secret purpose is to decide if San
Francisco is too corrupt to go on, and is deserving (that word again)
of nuclear wrath.

Enter Invention, Jeremy's brown-hooded ghost. Ghosts are the product of unlimited human possibilities, of at least three humans thinking outside the box simultaneously, reifying multiple universes. Invention, who has access to multiple universes (called “cosmi” in this case) believes that Jeremy's sales
success is tied to his helping to prevent the Waziris from destroying San Francisco.

We wind up with a rather cartoonish team of bunglers from the various parts of Wyrigistan (plus a couple of American converts) sent out to plumb the most depraved depths (as they see it) of homosexuality to decide if San Fran can live or not.
Their adversaries: Jeremy; Phil, a gay African-American ex-linebacker
who works as a drug counselor; Homer, a Chinese-American accountant;
and Ricard, a Filipino sportswriter-turned-mystery-author. The FBI
and CIA are in on it, too. I was a bit disappointed in Ricard's quick
synopsis of the Golden Age of Spain, when it was run by Caliphs after
the Arabs (he calls them “Islamists”) conquered the not-too-swift
Visigoths and held sway over a burgeoning of literature, philosophy,
mathematics, music, and architecture that brightened the otherwise
Dark Ages. He then cites 1492 as the “real” emergence of Spain as
a superpower, while many readers will recognize the year as the one
of the Expulsion of the Jews and Arabs and the rise of the Spanish
Inquisition. While I don't relish the idea of living under a
Caliphate nowadays, in 1000 C.E I would have preferred it over being
tortured by Visigoths. Every civilization has its ups and downs.

Things get more interesting when the
Norse Pantheon enters the fray. It all is very complicated, but many
characters we have already met turn out to have both human and divine
identities. There is violence and death and some destruction. Harald
Hansen handles it all deftly; the writing is superb and holds your
attention through all the wild events. He also includes some
wonderful quotes from Neal Stephenson, Virgil and other august
characters. A very satisfying book.

Full Disclosure

Unless otherwise noted, books submitted for review have been provided free of charge to the New Podler book review blog. The majority of these are ebook versions of print editions. The Podler Staff do not receive any compensation for reviews.

INDEPENDENT NOVEL AWARD

The Independent Novel Award (INA) recognizes the best indie-published books that have been reviewed on this blog.

In 2016, the winners were Madam Tulip by David Ahern, The Colony by RM Gilmour, and The Silver Mask by Christian Ellingsen.

In 2015, the winner was Tethered Worlds: Blue Star Setting by Gregory Faccone.

In 2014, the winners were Chained by Fear by Jim Melvin and Noise by Brett Garcia Rose.

In 2013, the winners were Realmgolds by Mike Reeves-McMillan, Black Book: Volume 1 by Dylan Jones and A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock.

In 2012, the winners were Lunch Bucket Paradise by Fred Setterberg, This Jealous Earth by Scott Dominic Carpenter, Oathbreaker Book Two: The Magus's Tale by Colin McComb, We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson and M. Terry Green's Shaman, Friend, Enemy.

In 2011, the winners were Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson, Being Light by Helen Smith, Gunshot Stigmata by Scott C. Rogers, Oathbreaker Book One: The Knight's Tale by Colin McComb and Mirror Shards, an anthology edited by Thomas K. Carpenter.

In 2010, the winners were Skygirl and the Superheroic Legacy by Joe Sergi, Arguing With Henry by Niall Hunter, ZombieStop Parade by Richard Buzzell and The Losing Role by Steve Anderson.

In 2009, Shooting an Albatross by Steven R. Lundin won the Independent Novel Award.

In 2008 no award was given.

In 2007, Chion by Darryl Sloan won the International Print on Demand Book Award, the precursor of the INA.

Submission Status:

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